If you’ve ever left a workshop fired up, only to watch nothing change by Friday, you’re not alone. Organizations invest heavily in leadership development, yet too often the lift is short-lived.
The problem isn’t lack of interest — it’s lack of impact. According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2025 Report, only 44% of managers globally say they’ve received formal management training. That means more than half are still figuring out leadership without any structured support.
But here’s the kicker: even for the managers who do get training, much of it doesn’t stick. Most programs don’t address the real challenge managers face — leading people who think, work, and respond differently than they do. That’s where the friction happens: a well-meaning manager “communicates clearly” in their own style, only to discover it landed as confusing, abrupt, or even dismissive to someone else.
This is where the gap lies. Training leaders on concepts is one thing. Helping them adapt their style to different personalities, hold tough conversations, and actually apply those skills at work — that’s what makes development transfer to Tuesday at 2 p.m., for example.
1) It’s generic when the work is specific
Most leadership curricula are built for “leaders in general.” Your reality is anything but general. You’re leading in a unique context with real constraints, real personalities, and real pressures. Advice that isn’t shaped to your environment gets ignored or misapplied.
Make it stick: swap generic for contextual. Build space to apply leadership training at work inside the program itself. Use real scenarios, not case studies from another industry. [INTERNAL LINK: Leadership Development Program page]
2) Insight without practice creates shelfware
A good model can unlock self-awareness. Without reps, that insight fades. Muscle memory is built through repetition, not recognition. Many programs stop at the “aha,” then hope leaders figure it out on the job.
Make it stick: design for practice. Include structured role plays, micro-assignments between sessions, and quick debrief loops. Treat key conversations like skills, not traits. This is where practical leadership training for managers and supervisors wins.
3) No social support, no behavior change
Leaders don’t change habits in isolation. They need peers to normalize the messy middle, swap tactics, and keep each other honest. When development is an isolated event, people revert to old patterns fast.
Make it stick: add community and coaching. Small cohorts, peer dialogue, and coaching check-ins are the glue. Development sticks when managers don’t just learn a concept but also see how it works for someone across the table.
What “sticky” leadership development looks like
Here’s our litmus test. Use it whether you’re building in-house programs or vetting a partner.
- Personalize the playbook
Leaders need a mirror before they need a map. Tools that surface how you naturally show up — and how others experience you — make everything else faster. Self-awareness tools like DiSC help translate theory into timing, tone, and tactics you can actually use. [INTERNAL LINK: Everything DiSC Management session page] - Practice in context
Use your meetings, your deadlines, your conflict patterns. Each session should end with two micro-experiments to run before the next. Keep it simple: one conversation to have, one behavior to try. Then come back and debrief what worked. - Build a rhythm
Momentum beats intensity. Short, focused learning paired with space to apply in between is more effective than marathons. People implement between sessions, not just during them. That rhythm is how you make leadership training stick. - Measure what matters
Skip vanity metrics. Track the behaviors you expect to see: clearer expectations, fewer misunderstandings, faster alignment, better one-on-ones. Ask teams, not just participants. - Protect the time
Leaders will default to urgent over important. Put development on the calendar like you would any operational priority. Senior leaders need to model the commitment.
A practical path forward
Whether you’re a manager, supervisor, or the executive supporting them, sticky leadership development doesn’t mean more theory or longer workshops. It means:
- Tailored content that fits your operational realities
- Tools that reflect your style and team context
- Built-in practice and feedback loops
- Cohort support so learning doesn’t evaporate on Friday
That’s the design of our Leadership Development Program — and of our upcoming Everything DiSC Managementsession. Both are structured to give leaders tools they can use in the real world, not just insights to file away. [INTERNAL LINK: Leadership Development Program page]
Try this next Tuesday at 2 p.m.
Pick one conversation you’ve been avoiding. Use this three-step script:
- Name the shared outcome. “We both want X to succeed this month.”
- Own your signal. “Here’s how I may have contributed to the confusion.”
- Ask for a specific next step. “What would make expectations 10 percent clearer this week?”
Small moves, repeated, change culture. That’s leadership development that sticks.
